Poland sees considerable potential to strengthen cooperation with Taiwan, especially in the fields of trade and technology, Poland’s top envoy to Taiwan said.
“Taiwan is an attractive trade partner for Poland and, I believe, for other countries in central and eastern Europe,” Bartosz Rys, acting head of the Polish Office in Taipei, said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
Poland could be a great fit for Taiwanese companies looking to relocate their manufacturing or business operations to Europe due to its strategic location, good infrastructure, large domestic market, strong consumption and highly skilled workers, Rys said.
Photo courtesy of the Polish Office in Taipei via CNA
The potential for cooperation between Poland and Taiwan on electric vehicles (EV) could be particularly fruitful, he said.
“Poland is the biggest supplier of lithium-ion car batteries or their components in Europe. Overall, the prospects for cooperation between Polish and Taiwanese companies in the EV industry look very promising,” he said.
Rys also suggested that Taiwan could participate in the Three Seas Initiative and the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund to strengthen its cooperation with nations bordering the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas, in the development of infrastructure in the energy, transport and digital economy sectors.
The initiative is a forum of 12 EU states — Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The initiative welcomes nations and enterprises that share the same basic values and principles to participate in specific projects, Rys said.
The acting representative also sees potential for Polish products in the Taiwanese market, ranging from beverages to chocolates and cosmetics to ceramics.
“Taiwanese consumers have shown great interest in Polish products and we are also receiving more queries from Polish companies on doing business in Taiwan,” he said. “I hope this growing mutual interest will result in new trade opportunities and ultimately more Polish products being available in Taiwan.”
In the areas of education and people-to-people exchanges, Rys said that more than 1,000 Taiwanese students are enrolled at Polish universities.
In addition, as many as 1,000 Taiwanese doctors who graduated from Polish medical universities have been on the front line fighting the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan, he said.
Poles are also now more aware of Taiwan’s rich culture and beautiful landscapes than they were several years ago, when most primarily saw Taiwan as a manufacturer of computers and consumer electronics, he added.
Rys also announced that Poland would be the Guest of Honor at the Taipei International Book Exhibition in 2023.
“This will be a great opportunity to delve into Polish culture and literature, and hopefully meet Polish writers in person,” Rys said. “We also expect a high-level delegation from Poland at the opening ceremony.”
Rys said Poland’s donation of COVID-19 vaccine shots to Taiwan “reflects our solidarity and desire to help those in need.”
A shipment of 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Poland arrived in Taiwan on Sept. 5, making the European nation Taiwan’s third-largest vaccine donor after Japan and the US.
“I personally hope our donation will help Taiwan speed up the vaccination rollout” and ensure more people are protected against COVID-19, he said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS